11 replies to this topic

[thobel]

I'm looking for some advice on how to setup WHS2011 in Hyper V. I will only be using it for backing up desktops/laptops and maybe the remote access portion. The current setup is 2 120GB SSD's in Raid 0 for the OS (will be going 4x 120GB SSD in raid 5 soon) I'm using ssd's from my desktops that I have been upgrading to Sata III

Data is 15x2TB Sata II in a single volume/partition

So I assume I can just create a VM (onto the Sata II data drives)

Configure as nomal.

Delete default shares since they wont be used.

Setup remote access

Reinstall clients

for backup locations I'm assuming I would need to use //servername/sharename ?

for Server backup I assume I can pass threw a USB drive?

Any tips, trick, warning anything before I start down the path?

[no-control]

It was all sounding good until you wanted to pass through a USB drive for back up.

[jmwills]

If you have another empty bay, you could use that for a drive, take it offline from the host and let the VM use it. You can also get adapters for 3.5" drives to fit in the larger bays also.

[ikon]

You have a 30TB single volume? Pretty large.

eSATA is also an option if you want to be able to take the backup drive offsite. I'm not the biggest fan of eSATA but I do use it for backups from my server, so who am I to talk.

[thobel]

So I got it all setup

Windows 2008R2 -2600k @4.3ghz 16GB Ram
15x2TB in Single raid 6 Volume/partition (21.8Tb Usable)

2008r2 is installed on 120x2GB SSD's in raid 0 (I backup to external)
Running Hyper V and acting as File Server

VM1: Win7 x64: Handled Downloads/Newsgroups/FTP almost anything I use to get stuff from outside my network +ORB for streaming Media to my moble devices
VM2: WHS 2011 running backups and remote access. Setup with 2TB's of space (all my pc's/desktops are on SSD's so 6 PC's setup taking up less then 500GB )

The VM's and all Media are on the Raid 6 (and no way for me to have them really backed up short of buying 20TB more.. and thats not happening. I figure Raid 6 will handle ALMOST anything short of a disaster so big I wont be watching movies anyway

1) I love Hyper V on 2008R2
2) I hated VMware Workstation
3) Its amazing how smooth it all runs with a little 2600k

[ikon]

Glad you got it all working the way you want.

[no-control]

how are you handling permissions with the share(s)?

[Jason]

This is intriguing. I just received my new Ivy Bridge core i5-3570K and 16 GB RAM. Currently I run WHS 2011 as a standalone OS, but have considered installing WS 2008 R2 and installing WHS 2011 within a Hyper-V VM. It seems like the WS 2008 R2 OS would be able to better leverage the CPU and RAM than WHS 2011. My primary function for running WHS 2011 is for workstation backups and is also used as a file/print/SFTP server. Didn't know whether it would be advantageous to try Hyper-V?

My WHS 2011 OS is a RAID 0 250 GB HDD
Also I have one 4 x 1.5 TB RAID 5 array + 4 x 2 TB RAID 5 array. Both are hardware RAID using an Adaptec 5805 RAID card.

[DeeNooP]

It's good to see you got this working

Sorry I'm new to this - I'm trying to do the same with my new server - WHS2011 inside HyperV. After 2 attempted installs it seems to be getting stuck on installation all the time.

Are you able to tell me what settings you gave the HyperV VM with WHS2011 in it please? Or any extra tweaks you made to WS2008? I'm giving it plenty of storage, RAM and even tried cores, but doesn't seem to be able to get past the installation process.
Thanks!

[Jason]

Actually your issue is quite common. I too encountered it during my WHS2011 Hyper-V VM install. When your WHS2011 VM install appears to hang up, press CTRL+ALT+DEL and go to Task Manager and click File > New Task (Run). At the prompt enter cmd to launch a command prompt. From within the CMD window, issue an: ipconfig /renew. It should renew your network IP address and immediately continue the install at the point where it appeared to hang up. Let me know if that resolves your issue. Good luck!

[jmwills]

Sometimes, if you remove the virtual Network Adapter and then add it back in, that will help that issue. Your 16GB of RAM will be wasted on WHS. It will only see 8. The plan is soild. Stick with 2008R2 as the host and WHS as a Hyper V client.

[ikon]

Ditto on the RAM. Don't bother with 16GB.